Burden Of Work Research Articles

Artificial intelligence in modern dentistry

Advancements in the domain of computer science have made artificial intelligence (AI) almost ubiquitous in everyday life. Dentistry is known to easily adapt to new technologies and hence can easily acclimatize to this nascent field. With AI spreading into dentistry, models are being used to ascertain almost every dental condition, ranging from the routine dental caries to the more complex conditions like oral cancer, maxillofacial cysts, alveolar bone loss, and even appraising the urgency for orthodontic extractions. Artificial intelligence, has untapped potential and shows promising prospects. Multiple studies have been evaluated to highlight the progress made till date and it has been seen that AI based automated systems are exceptional in a limited domain and perform on par to dental specialists on a variety of performance parameters. Better adaptation and utilization of technology will help in better and precise treatment outcomes, while also reducing the work burden of the clinician. Databases such as PubMed Central and Google Scholar were used to scout approximately 33 articles of recent origin using keywords such as artificial intelligence; artificial neural networks; convolutional neural networks; deep learning; and machine learning were used.

Research priorities to reduce risks from work hours and fatigue in the healthcare and social assistance sector.

The services of Healthcare and Social Assistance (HCSA) workers are needed by society around the clock. As a result, these workers are exposed to shift work and long work hours. The combination of demanding work schedules and other hazards in the HCSA work environment increases the health and safety risks to these workers, as well as to their patients/clients and the public. This paper has three aims: (1) provide an overview of the burden of shift work, long hours, and related sleep and fatigue problems in this sector; (2) suggest research priorities that would improve these; and (3) discuss potential positive impacts of addressing these research priorities for the health and safety of workers and the public. The authors used a modified Delphi approach to anonymously rank-order priorities for improving HCSA worker health and safety and public safety. Input was also obtained from attendees at the 2019 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Work Hours, Sleep, and Fatigue Forum. The highest rated research priorities were developing better designs for work schedules, and improving the HCSA culture and leadership approaches to shift work and long work hours. Additional priorities are identified. Research in these priority areas has the potential to benefit HCSA workers as well as their patients/clients, employers, and society.

Women’s Roles in the Indonesian Economy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities

This Survey discusses the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the livelihood of Indonesian women. The pandemic has disproportionately affected women around the world, including in Indonesia, owing to gender inequalities at work and at home. Women bear most of the burden of unpaid domestic work and care for families. The pandemic has also forced adjustments in labour utilisation, and the movement of workers from formal to informal sectors. However, it has created new opportunities, including for micro, small and medium enterprises that harness digitalisation, although the sustainability of these opportunities for women is still too early to assess, owing to the persistent gender divide in Indonesia’s digital economy. The possible long-term mental health effects of the pandemic are also something to watch.

Improving patient and clinician safety during COVID-19 through rapidly adaptive simulation and a randomised controlled trial: a study protocol

IntroductionCOVID-19 required healthcare systems to iteratively adapt for safe and up-to-date care as knowledge of the disease rapidly evolved. Rates of COVID-19 infections continue to fluctuate and patients without COVID-19...

Program Impact Pathway of the Positive Deviance/Hearth Interactive Voice Calling Program in a Peri-Urban Context of Cambodia

ABSTRACTBackgroundPositive Deviance/Hearth (PDH) is an internationally recognized nutrition rehabilitation program. However, nutritional improvements are inconsistent across contexts. It is unclear if variations are due to differences in program design, implementation, utilization, or other contextual factors. Furthermore, few PDH programs have addressed the high time and work burdens of caregivers and volunteers. To address this, the study integrated interactive voice calling (IVC) with PDH.ObjectivesA program impact pathway (PIP) analysis was used to evaluate the secondary outcomes of facilitators, barriers, and contextual factors that influenced the design, implementation, and utilization of a Positive Deviance/Hearth-Interactive Voice Calling program to improve the nutritional status of children in Cambodia.MethodsA PIP analysis was done on data collected through in-depth interviews with caregivers (n = 32), key informant interviews with volunteers (n = 16) and project staff (n = 3), and surveys of project staff (n = 5).ResultsIn the design phase, facilitators included quality training, technical support and design tools, community mobilization, and linkage to existing health services. Barriers included poor community mobilization. For the implementation phase, facilitators were good volunteer knowledge, follow-up tools and guidance, supervision, and spot checks of volunteers. Barriers were lack of time and overworked older caregivers. For the utilization phase, facilitators included family and volunteer support and access to phones, whereas barriers were lack of support, time, and financial resources; low levels of education and old age of caregivers; and inconsistent phone use. Contextual factors included food insecurity and increased childcare responsibilities of grandmothers due to migration of mothers.ConclusionsThe PIP analysis identified facilitators, barriers, and contextual factors that may affect the design, intervention, and utilization of IVC interventions for health and nutrition behavior change and elements to consider when designing and implementing them. When implementing child nutrition programs in Cambodia, supporting interventions addressing mental health and time and resource constraints of elderly caregivers should also be included.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03399058.

초임 기술 교사의 교직 효능감과 학교현장 적응

The goals of this study were to investigate the efficacy of novice technology teachers and to find out the difficulties and the solutions in adapting to the teaching profession. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a simultaneous research design method among mixed research methods was used, and an on-line survey was distributed to new technology teachers nationwide. The novice technology teachers selected for the study were technology teachers with less than 4 years of teaching experience, and were composed of teachers firstly assigned to the school site from 2018 to 2021. For quantitative data collection, this study employed instruments composed of items asking about the teaching efficacy. In addition, the qualitative data collection were collected by the open-ended questions regarding the difficulties and solutions associated with subject teaching, guidance, and administrative work of novice technology teachers. As a result, novice technology teachers experienced difficulties in class planning , practicum environment , colleagues , and students in subject teaching, and they made efforts like improving professionalism , class planning , and practice operation to solve the difficulties. In terms of the guidance, they experienced difficulties in relationships with students , various students , guidance methods , friendship guidance , and they made efforts like class management , relationships with fellow teachers and school administrators , class management efforts , and professional development to overcome the difficulties. Lastly, for administrative work, they experienced difficulties in terms of work burden , work immaturity , and colleague . In conclusion, it is necessary to provide an opportunity to apply the contents learning in the training to the actual classes and receive feedback by providing continuous training for successful adaptation to the teaching profession for new technology teachers. It is necessary to expand the infrastructure that can support the cooperative teaching culture.

The Relationship Between Online Learning Methods and The Stress Level of Parents of Primary School Students in Cimaung Village, Cimaung District, Bandung Regency

The Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in the world, especially in Indonesia, had an impact on all community activities, including in the field of education. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the government issued a policy to implement distance learning methods or online learning methods that apply to all levels of education including elementary schools. Online learning methods, especially for elementary schools, require the active role of parents. This of course adds to the burden of parental work which can trigger an increase in stress. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between online learning methods and the stress level of parents of elementary school students. The design of this study was quantitative with a cross-sectional approach. The sample is 59 parents of school students who take online learning. Questionnaires were used to measure online learning methods and PSS (Perceived Stress Scale) to measure stress on parents. The statistical test used Rank Spearmen Correlation with an error rate of 5%. The results showed that most parents stated that the online learning method was effective, and most experienced moderate stress, and there was a positive and significant relationship between online learning methods and the stress level of parents of elementary school students (correlation coefficient 0.658, p value 0.001) . Thus, in the implementation of online learning, parents are expected to be better prepared to play a positive and dynamic role in their learning so that the stress that occurs can be prevented.

Burden of treatment, emotion work and parental burnout of mothers to children with or without special needs: A pilot study

The psychological phenomenon of Parental Burnout (PB) results from an imbalance between continuous exposure to chronic parenting stress and available coping resources. The study’s aim was to examine relationships between mothers’ perceived burden of treatment and PB, and their ability to utilize emotion work (EW) as a psychological coping resource. Ninety-eight Israeli mothers (46 had children with special needs with disabilities—W-SND, and 52 had children without special needs—WO-SN) completed questionnaires assessing their perception of burden of treatment, EW and PB. According to the findings, mothers of children W-SND reported significantly higher PB, a higher perceived burden of treatment and deeper EW than mothers of children WO-SN. Additionally, among all the mothers, a positive significant correlation was found between perceived burden of treatment and PB, while among mothers of children W-SND, positive correlations were found between their perceived burden of treatment and deep EW, and between deep EW and PB. These findings suggest that among mothers of children W-SND, PB is related to their perception of the burden of treatment and to performing deep EW. Additional psychological, cultural and environmental factors should be investigated, in order to gain new perspectives regarding PB as a psychological phenomenon that affects parenting and the ability to utilize coping mechanisms for mothers generally and for mothers of children W-SND especially.

Numerical investigation and prediction of phase separation in diverging T-junction

Purpose In plethora of petroleum, chemical and heat transfer applications, T-junction is often used to partially separate gas from other fluids, to reduce work burden on other separating equipment. The abundance of liquid carryovers from the T-junction side arm is the cause of production downtime in terms of frequent tripping of downstream equipment train. Literature review revealed that regular and reduced T-junctions either have high peak liquid carryovers (PLCs) or the liquid appears early in the side arm [liquid carryover threshold (LCT)]. The purpose of this study is to harvest the useful features of regular and reduced T-junction and analyze diverging T-junction having upstream and downstream pipes. Design/methodology/approach Volume of fluid as a multiphase model, available in ANSYS Fluent, was used to simulate air–water slug flow in five diverging T-junctions for eight distinct velocity ratios. PLCs and LCT were chosen as key performance indices. Findings The results indicated that T (0.5–1) and (0.8–1) performed better as low liquid carryovers and high LCT were achieved having separation efficiencies of 96% and 94.5%, respectively. These two diverging T-junctions had significantly lower PLCs and high LCT when compared to other three T-junctions. Results showed that the sudden reduction in the side arm diameter results in high liquid carryovers and lower LCT. Low water and air superficial velocities tend to have low PLC and high LCT. Research limitations/implications This study involved working fluids air and water but applies to other types of fluids as well. Practical implications The novel T-junction design introduced in this study has significantly higher LCT and lower PLC. This is an indication of higher phase separation performance as compared to other types of T-junctions. Because of lower liquid take-offs, there will be less frequent downstream equipment tripping resulting in lower maintenance costs. Empirical correlations presented in this study can predict fraction of gas and liquid in the side arm without having to repeat the experiment. Social implications Maintenance costs and production downtime can be significantly reduced with the implication of diverging T-junction design. Originality/value The presented study revealed that the diameter ratio has a significant impact on PLC and LCT. It can be concluded that novel T-junction designs, T2 and T3, achieved high phase separation; therefore, it is favorable to use in the industry. Furthermore, a few limitations in terms of diameter ratio are also discussed in detail.

When Paid Work Gives in to Unpaid Care Work: Evidence from the Hedge Fund Industry Under COVID-19

We examine how childcare inequalities in the home affect the work productivity of female talent, using unique data on the family structures of hedge fund managers and the exogenous shock from school closures during the early COVID-19 pandemic response. We find that female managers’ ability to generate abnormal returns is curbed by 9% on average in the shock-month of school closures, providing a direct measure of the cost of unpaid care work. This effect is driven by mothers and especially mothers with young children. With increasing calls for more female representation in all layers of the economy and the efforts exerted toward that goal, there is reason for concern that these efforts might not factor in as the pandemic has uncovered how women in general and mothers in particular bear both the burden of unpaid care work and the subsequent cost to their paid work. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance.

The politics and policies of sleep? Empirical findings and the policy context

ABSTRACT Public policies aim to promote the social good, but they do not always meet this goal. We argue that to improve policy and policy analysis, it is important to pay attention to the cumulative effect of policies on how people use their time. In this study, we looked at the effect of certain policies on sleep. Our exploratory study yielded intriguing findings on sleep in Israel in the specific policy context of a dual burden of work and caregiving. We surveyed 671 participants on the effect of work and care hours on sleep. The findings showed participants slept an average of 6.6 hours and expressed the desire to sleep one hour more. The desire to sleep more was higher than for all other uses of time and was evident in all employment categories. Part-time workers slept more than full-time workers and women, and younger people asked to sleep more than older ones. Long work hours and care hours led to lower sleep hours. Our findings suggest the need to be aware of possible ‘side effects’ in the policy design stage and are relevant to other countries with a care-work burden.

Beyond empathy decline: Do the barriers to compassion change across medical training?

Background: Despite being a mandated, foundational value in healthcare, research on compassion remains limited. Studying the individual, patient, clinical, and contextual factors that interfere with compassion—the “barriers”—may clarify our understanding of the origins of compassion and identify potential targets for improving patient-centred care. Studies of the related construct of empathy have suggested that medical students report declines with increasing clinical experience. In contrast, when comparing physicians with medical students, increased clinical experience predicts lower barriers to compassion. Whether—and how—a similar experience-related decline in the factors that interfere with compassion occurs across medical training remains unknown.Aims: To describe how the barriers to compassion vary across clinical training in medical students.Method: New Zealand medical students (N = 351) in their clinical years (Years 4–6) completed measures of the Barriers to Physician Compassion (BPCQ) and potential covariates such as demographics, work burden factors, and dispositional factors. The BPCQ indexes the extent to which barriers in four domains (individual, patient, clinical, and contextual) interfere with a physician/student’s compassion towards patients. Analyses of variance and regression analyses were used to explore the effect of year level on the four types of barriers.Results: Year 4 students reported slightly lower student-related, environmental and patient/family-related (but not clinical) barriers than Year 6 students (effect size: ɷ2 < 0.05); all barriers increased comparably across training. Controlling for relevant confounds, regression analyses confirmed that lower year level predicted lower barriers to compassion. Higher self-compassion, but not gender, predicted lower barriers.Conclusions: In extending studies of empathy decline, this report suggests that students experience higher barriers to compassion as clinical training progresses. This is in contrast to existing studies contrasting physicians with medical students, where greater experience was associated with lower perceived barriers to compassion. Self-compassion may offset increases in barriers to care.

Impact of a telemedicine system on work burden and mental health of healthcare providers working with COVID-19: a multicenter pre-post prospective study.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacts not only patients but also healthcare providers. This study seeks to investigate whether a telemedicine system reduces physical contact in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigates nurses’ distress and depression.MethodsPatients hospitalized with COVID-19 in 4 hospitals and 1 designated accommodation measured and uploaded their vital signs to secure cloud storage for remote monitoring. Additionally, a mat-type sensor placed under the bed monitored the patients’ respiratory rates. Using the pre-post prospective design, visit counts and health care providers’ mental health were assessed before and after the system was introduced.ResultsA total of 100 nurses participated in the study. We counted the daily visits for 48 and 69 patients with and without using the telemedicine system. The average patient visits were significantly less with the system (16.3 [5.5–20.3] vs 7.5 [4.5–17.5] times/day, P = .009). Specifically, the visit count for each vital sign assessment was about half with the telemedicine system (all P < .0001). Most nurses responded that the system was easy to use (87.1%), reduced work burden (75.2%), made them feel relieved (74.3%), and was effective in reducing the infection risk in hospitals (79.1%) and nursing accommodations (95.0%). Distress assessed by Impact of Event Scale-Revised and depression by Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were at their minimum even without the system and did not show any significant difference with the system (P = .72 and .57, respectively).ConclusionsTelemedicine-based self-assessment of vital signs reduces nurses’ physical contact with COVID-19 patients. Most nurses responded that the system is easy and effective in reducing healthcare providers’ infection risk.

Biometric palm vein authentication of psychiatric patients for reducing in-hospital medication errors: a pre–post observational study

ObjectivesThis study aimed to evaluate a biometric palm vein authentication system to prevent medication administration errors in psychiatric hospitals.DesignThis is a pre–post observational study.SettingConventionally, the medication was distributed after a...

In the Eye of the Storm: Leadership Lessons From the Front.

New York City (NYC) was in the eye of the COVID-19 pandemic storm in the spring of 2020. Since that time, the country has seen wave after wave of outbreaks and concurrent psychosocial crises. Clinical nurses and nurse leaders delivered extraordinary care with grit, innovation, agility, and resilience. When in the eye of the storm, staff have to feel safe and have a voice even in command-control, adaptive modes. Nurses and nurse leaders have been resilient, and organizations have to play their part in decreasing work burden and creating positive work environments. Non-value-added work as well as barriers to practice should be eliminated permanently. This article describes the many challenges including intensive care unit capacity, staffing, well-being, and lack of visitation, as well as leadership lessons such as the importance of presence, based on the NYC experience of a chief nursing officer in a large academic medical center. These lessons and their implications for our workforce, for public health, and for leadership development and competencies and have taught us how to lead into the future.

An analysis of elementary school teachers’ perceptions and utilization status on elementary English, reading and writing, using applications and platforms producing improvement plans

The purpose of this study is to examine elementary school teachers’ perceptions and utilization status on elementary English, reading and writing, using applications and platforms proposing improvement plans. A survey was conducted with a total of 50 elementary teachers that taught English, reading and writing, while using applications and platforms. The survey consisted of the following three categories: 1) teacher statistics, 2) teachers’ perceptions and utilization status of implementing applications and platforms, 3) difficulties in applying applications and platforms. Also, four elementary English experts participated in the semi-structured interview in order to discuss the results of the survey. Summarizing the survey and interview results, most of teachers showed a high degree of satisfaction in utilizing applications and platforms. They noticed the advantages of using applications and platforms are customized learning, learning management system and students’ interests. However, while using applications and platforms teachers experienced problematic factors that included lack of budget, deficiency of technology literacy, burden of work and differences in students’ proficiency levels. Based on these results, implications and suggestions for effective utilization of applications and platforms on elementary English, reading and writing, are discussed resulting in improvement plans.

Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for Tuberculosis Patients – Performance Challenges observed by the Providers and Patients

Introduction: Government of India launched an Aadhar-linked Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme from 1st April, 2018. Under this scheme, all notified TB patients would receive Rs 500 per month (~US$7) throughout the course of their treatment for nutritional support. Aim and Objectives: To determine the challenges faced by the health providers and patients in the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. Methods: This was a mixed method cross-sectional study conducted on all public and private TB patients notified during the year 2019 under RNTCP (now NTEP) in district Amritsar, Punjab. Quantitative data about the availability and validation of bank accounts was obtained from the Nikshay portal after having permission from the District TB Officer. Qualitative data was obtained from the focus group discussion and in-depth interviews with the involved staff members (17) and patients (20) registered in Tuberculin units of Amritsar. Results: From the Nikshay reports, it was observed that there was significant difference between the public and private sector and between rural and urban areas. Focus group discussion was done with the TB Health Visitor (TBHV) and Senior TB supervisors (STS) and asked about the hurdles they faced. Items were identified and tabulated. In-depth interviews were conducted on 20 patients, 10 each from public and private sector respectively. Data collected was transcribed and arranged as per the themes or questions and then the information was recorded under those sub-headings. Conclusion: The major challenges observed by the providers were lack of support from the private sector, lack of awareness among people, technical issues and more work burden. Patients mostly mentioned about confidentiality issues, lack of awareness, social stigma of the disease, less amount and long and complex process.

Problems Faced by External School Monitors during School Monitoring in Punjab

The main aim of this study was to identify the external monitors' problems and their influence on their performance in monitoring the elementary schools. The research was a sequential explanatory mixed method. All Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants (MEAs) (male and female) working as external monitors in Punjab were the study population. Firstly, districts were randomly selected, and then 4 MEAs from each sampled section were purposively selected. A self-developed questionnaire on the five-point Likert scale and a semi-structured interview were used as study instruments. The qualitative data were coded, themes were developed, and descriptive interpretation was carried out. It is found that external monitors have a burden of work, a lack of conveyance and inspection allowance, and a budget for stationery. They faced political interference and were not satisfied with the training. Consequently, the lack of facilities influences their performance. To improve their performance, these problems may be solved.

Implementation of Teleophthalmology to Improve Diabetic Retinopathy Surveillance: Qualitative Interview Study of Clinical Staff Informed by Implementation Science Frameworks.

BackgroundThe store-and-forward camera-based evaluation of the eye, or teleophthalmology, is an effective way to identify diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in the United States, but uptake has been slow. Understanding the barriers to and facilitators of implementing teleophthalmology programs from those actively adopting, running, and sustaining such programs is important for widespread adoption.ObjectiveThis study aims to understand the factors that are important in introducing teleophthalmology to improve access to diagnostic eye care for patients with diabetes in primary care clinics by using implementation science.MethodsThis qualitative study in 3 urban, low-income, largely racial and ethnic minority–serving safety-net primary care clinics in Rochester, New York, interviewed nurses and physicians on implementing a teleophthalmology program by using questions informed by the Practical, Robust Implementation and Sustainability Model and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.ResultsPrimary care nurses operationalizing the program in their clinics saw increased work burden and a lack of self-efficacy as barriers. Continuous training on the teleophthalmology process for nurses, physicians, and administrative staff through in-service and peer training by champions and superusers were identified by interviewees as needs. Facilitators included the perceived convenience for the patient and a perceived educational advantage to the program, as it gave an opportunity for providers to discuss the importance of eye care with patients. Concerns in making and tracking referrals to ophthalmology because of challenges related to care coordination were highlighted. The financial aspects of the program (eg, patient coverage and care provider reimbursement) were unclear to many staff members, influencing adoption and sustainability.ConclusionsStreamlining processes and workflows, training and assigning adequate staff, effectively coordinating care between primary care and eye care to improve follow-ups, and ensuring financial viability can all help streamline the adoption of teleophthalmology.

The Reviews of Microfinance and Women Empowerment in Ethiopia

According to the findings of different authors microfinance is providing financial services to unemployed and low-income individuals or groups who would have no access to formal banking services. It has a positive impact on the living standard of the poor people in particular and alleviates poverty in their households in general. It is not only undermining poverty in the city but also empowering women through surviving and making their life prosperous with dignity and self-reliance by providing financial services. And also Ethiopian Microfinance is facing different challenges in empowering such as lack of collateral assets, lack of information, work burden, production failures, verbal abuse, lack of infrastructure, low institutional capacity and opportunities of women in microfinance are providing startup capital, women empowerment, poverty eradication, social and political empowerment, improved saving skills and the above challenges listed should be taken consideration by government and concerned body as well as a problem-solving study must be conducted.